On view
South Asian Art
Portrait of Sharif Sarmadi, from the Salim Album,
ca. 1600
Indian
Mughal Empire, 1526–1858 | Reign of Akbar, 1556–1605
y1969-39
This portrait comes from an album named for the young Prince Salim that was compiled when the prince rebelled against his father and set up his own court in the eastern part of the empire. Later, the prince ascended the throne as the fourth Mughal emperor and adopted the name Jahangir (r. 1605–27). About thirty paintings from the album survive and are dispersed across collections in North America and Europe. All feature the same border decoration, with geometric medallions painted in gold. The inscription on this painting reads: īn shabīh-i Sharīf sarmad-i ast (this portrait of Sharif is everlasting/eternal).
Information
Title
Portrait of Sharif Sarmadi, from the Salim Album
Dates
ca. 1600
Medium
Opaque watercolor with gold on paper
Dimensions
miniature: 12.1 × 5.9 cm (4 3/4 × 2 5/16 in.)
sheet: 22.7 × 14.2 cm (8 15/16 × 5 9/16 in.)
mat: 48.9 × 36.2 cm (19 1/4 × 14 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of J. Lionberger Davis, Class of 1900
Object Number
y1969-39
Place Made
Asia, India
Inscription
Black-on-buff inscription above scene; inscription and scene together bordered with bands of blue and a broad zone of gold geometric patterns on the parchment ground.
Culture
Materials
Subject
Donor's number JLD33.
From Ettinghausen, “Islamic Art from Princeton”: Listed as “Portrait of an Official of the Court of the Emperor Jahangir,” about 1620. (See reference Bib. 702)
Card dates as from Reign of Jahangir, 1605-1627.
- "Acquisitions 1969", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 29, no. 1 (1970): p. 16-27., p. 27
- Richard Ettinghausen, Islamic art from Princeton Collections, (Princeton , NJ: The Museum, 1974). , no. 37
- "Gifts by J. Lionberger Davis, Class of 1900, to the Art Museum", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 33, no. 2 (1974): p. 24-30., p. 29
- Glenn D. Lowry, et. al., An annotated and illustrated checklist of the Vever Collection, (Washington, D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1988)., no. 329 (for Salim Album)
